CarriedInterest

Is the American tax code designed to be confusing? At more than 70,000 pages, its complexity is hard to overstate. But forget its vastness: Even when it comes to its most basic terms, the IRS seems determined to muddy the waters of meaning. To help you out, we've unpacked a few of the most weaselly weasel words.

On Tuesday, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney released his tax returns, which showed he only paid about 14% of his $21.6 million income in taxes. You'll probably never have that kind of money, but you can use some of his methods to save on your own taxes.

Mitt Romney paid a lower tax rate on his $21.6 million income in 2010 than the average U.S. family. It's no secret how: He made his money from investments, not wages. But even people who favor low capital gains taxes might not approve if they understood more about a neat little income category he benefited from called "carried interest."